AAH 348 A: SPTP-Architecture: Magic, Metaphor and Ideology.
A social-historical and symbolic exploration of architecture, gardens, and other aspects of built environments in Europe and the U.S. The course has two focal points: the late Renaissance to Rococo in Europe and Russia, and the 20th century (Vienna c. 1900, the Bauhaus, and the International Style).Themes include architecture and mysticism; buildings and gardens as metaphors of power, and as microcosms and sacred realms; the technological revolution; utopian worlds in modern architecture; and topics in current architectural theory. Movies and documentaries on architects and architecture will be included. This course fulfills the 300-level requirement of the new major with a concentration in Art History, and the upper-level elective requirement for majors concentrating in Studio Art.
AAH 117 is recommended but not required. Open to students in other majors.

AAH 448 A Special Topics SYE Seminar: Museums
This course explores the museum as a largely western creation and as a lens through which the western world views other cultures. Readings and class discussions will consider such topics as the history of collecting and the origins of the great European and American museums; the growth of museums in the eras of colonial empires and superpowers; the politics of collection and public display; the role of museums in constructing and communicating cultural difference; and the new museum, as redefined by post-colonial and post-modern thought.
Special project for 2014: students will have the opportunity to carry on “curatorial objects research,” focusing on the collection of Haitian Voudun flags in the Richard F. Brush Gallery.

ACCOUNTING

no
SPTP course descriptions this semester

AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES no
SPTP course descriptions this semester

AFRICAN
STUDIES

AFS 248A/ANTH248A - Humans and Other Animals
This course explores relationships between humans and other animals, as well as ideas that humans have about animals. We will examine the similarities and differences between humans and our closest relatives: the great apes and other primates. We will consider both wild and domestic animals through topics such as hunting and herding, wildlife documentaries and working animals, zoos and pets. Finally, we will delve into the ways animals inspire the human imagination in folktales, magic, and beliefs about shamans and shape-shifters. We will examine cases from around the world, with a special focus on Africa. Students who take the course as AFS 248 must do both research projects on African topics.

AFS248B/FR248 SPTP: Congo:Representations
In this course, we will explore the different representations of Democratic Republic of Congo, through novels, historical accounts, ethnography, movies and graphic novels. This region has been subjected to various types of cruelty and oppression, since the Belgium colonization. Works studied include Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, excerpts from Hochchild's history King Leopold's Ghost; Raoul Peck's film Lumumba and Mweze Ngangura's film Identity Pieces; the novel Life and a Half by Sony Labou Tansi, etc. The goals of the course are not only to explore Congo's history and culture, but also to think critically about the way it has been imagined and represented from the 19th century to the present day.
Students wishing to count the course for the Francophone Studies major will read works in the original French where appropriate and write all papers in French.

AFS 348 GOVT 373A: SPTP- Political Institutions in the Developing World
Can the choice of certain political institutions help address challenges in developing countries by promoting better representation, political stability, more government accountability, less corruption, or improved economic performance? What institutions are best able to deliver these outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Central and South Asia and others developing regions of the world? This course tackle these question through introducing students to the main concepts and approaches of comparative institutional analysis through an examination of democratic political institutions in countries across the developing world. In order to examine the possibilities and limits institutional design, each class juxtaposes contemporary research on institutions in developing countries with classic comparative and theoretical studies of political institutions from the developed world. Students will have the opportunity to explore the effects of political institutions in an area of the world of interest to them through a semester-long research project.

AFS480A/ HIST480A: SYE: Contemporary Africa
Research seminar that focuses on the critical theme of development in Africa over the past several millenia with a strong concentration on the past few centuries. Students will read and discuss in a seminar style format about the complexities of this theme from a number of scholarly and interdisciplinary perspectives. Each student will also work closely with the course instructor to produce a substantial research paper on an aspect of this theme, and make an oral presentation of the major findings in their research.

ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTH248A/AFS 248A - Humans and Other Animals
This course explores relationships between humans and other animals, as well as ideas that humans have about animals. We will examine the similarities and differences between humans and our closest relatives: the great apes and other primates. We will consider both wild and domestic animals through topics such as hunting and herding, wildlife documentaries and working animals, zoos and pets. Finally, we will delve into the ways animals inspire the human imagination in folktales, magic, and beliefs about shamans and shape-shifters. We will examine cases from around the world, with a special focus on Africa. Students who take the course as AFS 248 must do both research projects on African topics.

ANTH 348 A: SPTP- Myth, Magic, and Ritual
Are you superstitious? Do you have a morning ritual? In this class, we will explore the ways in which myth, magic, and ritual permeate social life. Drawing on studies of religious beliefs and practices ranging from literate "world religions" to those of small-scale, non-literate societies, we will ask fundamental questions about human belief systems and examine how far we have come to answering them in a century of theorizing. There are no prerequisites for this course, which is designed to be accessible to those with no background in anthropology, but a high degree of participation in class discussions and extracurricular research will be required.

ARABno
SPTP course descriptions this semester

ART AND ART HISTORY (Fine Arts)

r

ASIAN STUDIES

ASIA248B/FILM248 B/REL 248 B: SPTP: Paths to the Buddha-Japanese Journeys to Sacred Centers
This course explores the experiences, rituals, stories, beliefs, temples/shrines, images and traveling in Japanese Buddhist pilgrimages. What kind of travel is pilgrimage? What kind of religious experiences does it evoke? How is it tied to the Buddhist quest for freedom from suffering? How does it develop historically? Why is Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage alive and well in contemporary Japan? We will study the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Basho's poetic journeys, Shugendo or Mountain Buddhist pilgrimages, Hijiri travels to Mount Koya, anime pilgrimages and pilgrimage in modern Buddhist religious movements. This course is one of a series of courses devoted to the interdisciplinary study of Buddhism, designated as Paths of the Buddha and supported by the Mellon Humanities Crossing Boundaries Project, that will be offered in the 2014/2015 academic year.

BIOCHEMISTYno
SPTP course descriptions this semester

BIOLOGY

BIOL 248 A SPTP – Exotic SpeciesHumans have altered the biodiversity of many regions of the world by spreading species beyond their native habitats. Is this form of “globalization” desirable? We derive great benefit from many of these introduced (exotic) species but certain exotics have also caused devastating ecological and economic impacts. Who are these exotics and what is it about their biology that makes them so valuable or harmful? In this class we’ll describe the diversity of exotic species and relate their colonization to patterns of human activity and to life history traits that make them so adaptable to new territories. We’ll also focus on the biological traits that make many of them so harmful to native species and biodiversity. Finally, we’ll try to predict which non-native species may be the next exotics in N. America and we’ll examine the scientific rationale behind government initiatives to prevent such invasions.

CANADIAN STUDIES no
SPTP course descriptions this semester

CARIBBEAN LATIN
AMERICAN STUDIES

CLAS248B/ HIST 248B: SPTP-Yankees in the Tropics: American Imperialism in the Caribbean
This course will provide a critical examination of the enduring and conflicting involvement that the United States has had in the Caribbean. We will look at American attitudes towards Caribbean peoples and the ways in which life in the region has been affected by United States influence. We will start our journey in the 19th century, talking about American responses to the Haitian Revolution as well as the increasing American presence in the region in the 1850s, which culminated in the Spanish American War. Once in the 20th century, we will look at topics such as the US invasion of Haiti, the Cuban Revolution, and the political and economic transformation of Puerto Rico under US tutelage.

CLAS448A/SPAN448A/ FILM448A/: SPTP-Portrait of the Nation in Black & White: Latin America and Spain in Film
What is a nation? What is the relation between cinema and the nation? How does cinema contribute to create (and to contest) an image of the nation? In this course we examine the connection between cinema and the nation within the context of three historical events (and their aftermaths) that had a transformative effect in theSpanish‐speaking world: the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, and the Cuban Revolution. All films are in black & white. (Taught in Spanish)

CHEMISTRY

no
SPTP course descriptions this semester

CHINESE
no
SPTP course descriptions this semester

COMMUNITY BASED
LEARNINGno
SPTP course descriptions this semester

COMPUTER SCIENCEno
SPTP course descriptions this semester

ECONOMICS ECON 348 A: SPTP- Experimental Economics
In this class, you will learn how experiments help economists improve their models of behavior. You will study, participate in, and discuss a wide variety of experiments ranging from classic examinations of how markets clear to policy analysis to behavioral economics. The emphasis will be on research methods; you will help prepare and run at least one experiment as well as writing an original proposal to study a topic of your choosing. Students who complete this class may have the opportunity to use the new economics lab for summer research or senior projects.

ECON 450 A/ PSYC448 A SYE:First Comes Love…: Economics, Psychology, and the Family (Horwitz and Crosby-Currie)
Bringing together economics and psychology majors, this interdisciplinary senior seminar will explore the social institution of the family by considering the evolving processes of courtship, marriage and parenting. Families perform a variety of functions, many of them to secure the psychological and economic well-being of their members. However, those functions have evolved over time, requiring that the forms of families evolve as well. In particular, we will consider ways in which economic changes have required families to adapt new structures to fulfill their functions. For example, consider the challenges of child care for families with two working parents or the ways that economic prosperity—or lack thereof—affects the role of love in the decision to marry. In this seminar, we will compare and contrast the methodologies and theories the two fields use to explore how and to what extent families fulfill their functions and how the family has changed. Our hope is that an exploration of the scholarly literature on the family from both disciplines will provide you with fascinating research questions and shed some new light on the nature of the modern family.

EDUCATION

EDUC 247 A: SPTP-Teaching and Learning in Urban Contexts
This course explores issues related to teaching and learning in under-resourced urban schools, including: roles of culture and context in teacher-student relationships; impact of unequal social structures such as race and class on student achievement; how teaching in urban contexts is “different”; and effective practices in urban and other schools. We will bring a critical and interdisciplinary lens to the concept of “The Urban” in order to analyze our assumptions about urban schools, teachers, students, and families.

EDUC 348A: SPTP-Multicultural Education
This course is will explore frameworks, ideas, materials, and pedagogies for education in a multicultural society. A CBL component at the Akwasasne reservation is integral to it.

The course surveys multiple approaches to themes of diversity in education and places them in conversation with one another. We will address questions such as: What is culture? Can we have a really objective point of view on reality? How does the right to difference relate to the right to equality in school? Can teaching be indifferent to matters of social class, gender, ethnicity or exceptionality? How does the way we think and talk about multiculturalism impact educational equity? and many more that will emerge from our shared process of inquiry. We will focus on topics such as: individual attitudes and interpersonal relations; prejudice; cultural foundations of oppression in the USA; confronting oppression: racism, sexism, heterosexim, classism, ableism; pluralism in schools: cosmopolitanism, culturally responsive teaching. While the course topics are general and refer to the possibilities and challenges of our multicultural society, the course also offers a specific focus on the experience of Native Americans, caught in the oppressive alternative between assimilation and segregation. 10 visits to the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation on Thurs 2:10-6:00pm are required

ENGLISH

ENG 190 A: Introduction to Poetry
Does poetry tend to baffle you, although you know there’s something enticing about it that you’d like to understand better? Or have you enjoyed poetry before and would like to learn more about it? This is the course for you. We will explore many of the ways poets make art out of language, including the visual vistas, soundscapes, and mind-opening ideas that poems can give to their readers. Occasionally we’ll try out some of their creative techniques ourselves, but our consistent focus will be on appreciation and enjoyment.

ENG 190 B: Adaptations
This course examines the relationship between a number of novels and the films that have been based on them, paying close attention to questions of genre and developing the critical vocabulary appropriate to the analysis of each medium. From Jane Austen’s Emma (and its transformation into Clueless) to David Fincher’s take on Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, the course examines a variety of novels and a variety of film styles.

ENG 247 A: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the Twentieth Century and Beyond
The twentieth century saw an explosion in the number and variety of texts published by US writers of non-European descent, and this course will explore the aesthetic and historical significance of some of those texts. We will start with the early-twentieth-century surge in African American culture known as the Harlem Renaissance and move through Native American, Asian American, and Chicano/a texts. Along the way, we will think about how authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Sherman Alexie cope with the legacies of historical atrocities like slavery and Native American removal; carefully analyze the tensions between assimilation and maintaining the integrity of one’s cultural identity experienced by, for example, Maxine Hong Kingston and Richard Rodriguez; and savor the formal innovations of writers like Toni Morrison and Louise Erdrich.

ENG 247 B: Parallel Play: Making—with Language and Movement
The act of composition is common to all art forms. In this class, students (who needn’t be expert in any discipline) will be asked to create work that defies easy categorization. By juxtaposing two media that are seldom paired (movement and writing), the class will spark both exploration and discussion about the merits and drawbacks of genre separation in this multi-modal, mash-up era. By starting with two practices that involve tools most of us possess—our own language-use and our bodies—we will be able to create work that pushes at boundaries and exceeds expectations. Artists, actors, musicians, and athletes of all types welcome.

ENG 247 C: The History of the Personal Essay

Not too very long ago, creative nonfiction was frequently described as a new form of writing or an “emerging genre.” But while the term “creative nonfiction” may be relatively new, the personal essay form has been with us for centuries. Using Philip Lopate’s anthology The Art of the Personal Essay as a guide, this class will explore personal nonfiction in the ancient world, analyze the form as described and defined by Montaigne in the 16th century, and study the form in England, America, and other cultures from the 17th century up to the present day.

ENG 247 D: Travel Writing
Of the personal essay, it has been said that we ‘go inward in order to go outward.’ I’d like to put forward the proposition that in travel writing the reverse is often true; we go abroad to see the world but also to visit what Jeannette Winterson has called the ‘vast cities of the interior.’ Students in this course will be encouraged to use writing to deepen and enrich their experience of travel, to explore questions that call them to more direct and meaningful examination of their experiences, home and abroad.

ENG 250 A: Franz Kafka

Despite the few stories he published in his lifetime, the influence of Franz Kafka on both writers and critics has only grown since his death in 1924. Authors continue to explore the surreal yet eerily familiar landscapes mapped by Kafka in stories like “Poseidon” and “The Metamorphosis.” Meanwhile, critical approaches to fictions such as “In the Penal Colony” and “A Starvation Artist” reveal unsettling parallels between Kafka’s story worlds and contemporary cultural and political realities. This course will explore the work of Kafka from a number of critical perspectives, modeling approaches to research and writing for advanced literary study.

ENG 250 B: William Faulkner
This section of Methods of Critical Analysis focuses on the work of William Faulkner, in particular his novel Light In August. Although a troubling book for its depictions of race and violence, Light In August is a perfect text for practicing various kinds of methodological approaches, proving, in the end, how theory provides fresh, exciting insights.

ENG 347 A: Recovering Early American Women Writers
Who were some important American women writers working before 1820? If you cannot answer this question, you are not alone, even though many of the nation’s most popular early texts were written by women. This course will introduce you to some of these texts and to the scholarly process of “recovery,” that is, of taking a text that has fallen out of favor and reintroducing it to scholars and the wider public. We will begin by asking two important questions: “What kinds of texts did early American women writers produce?” and “How do we find them?” Our discussions will take us through genres ranging from seduction novels to gothic tales to political commentary and from successfully recovered texts available in paperback to works that have been out-of-print since their original publication and are now available only from internet archives. Along the way, you’ll use physical and digital archives to do your own recovery work, culminating in a final project that reintroduces a “lost” text.

ENG 347 B: The Gothic Novel (Genre Studies)
In Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, the protagonist marvels over the skin of the handsome vampire Edward. White with a faint flush from hunting, it “literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface.” Before Meyer, however, literary vampires did not sparkle. Indeed, some of them were barely sentient, much less capable of suave seductions. What happened to the gruesome villains of earlier Gothic novels? What is a Gothic novel?

In this course, we define this genre and trace its history from the first Gothic novel to the present. How have its conventions changed, and why? How might the Gothic reflect shifting concepts of science and religion, humanity and monstrosity, the individual and society? How might different literary theories—from feminist analysis to psychoanalytic critique—illuminate the meaning and function of this genre? Above all, why does the Gothic in its many forms continue to appeal to readers, especially young adults?

Readings will include Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, Matthew Lewis’s The Monk, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, John Polidori’s “The Vampyre,” Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Stephen King’s Carrie. In addition, we will analyze films and episodes from television series, discussing how the Gothic continues to change and create hybrids with other forms.

ENG 450 A: Seminar in H.P. Lovecraft
Among writers of horror fiction, only Edgar Allan Poe has received more attention from literary critics and scholars than Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), and the journal Lovecraft Studies has been publishing scholarly essays since 1979. Lovecraft’s influence has thoroughly pervaded American and European culture, influencing visual artists from Francis Bacon to H.R. Giger, and authors from Jorge Luis Borges to William S. Burroughs. At the level of mass culture, Lovecraft’s writings have inspired over forty film adaptations, over fifty pop music groups, and generations of authors interested in participating in Lovecraft’s unique “Cthulhu mythos” through anthologies that extend the Lovecraft mythos into the twenty-first century.

This semester, we will analyze Lovecraft’s fiction, non-fiction and poetry towards recognizing and assessing how personal philosophy, idiosyncratic aesthetics, and a unique conception of the writer’s craft combine to shape Lovecraft’s paradoxical effort in his writings to give voice to inexpressible, even inconceivable, fears. We will also consider to what degree his techniques may have indirectly contributed to the artistic impasse that in recent decades has forced horror fiction to move in violent new directions, replacing images provoked by the stimulation of reader imagination (i.e., the reader as co-writer) with depictions of graphic, visceral details. This course will also consider to what degree Lovecraft’s creation of a pantheon of “elder gods” reflects a non-western attitude toward mythology, as well as an opportunity for a writer to attempt epic art without having to imitate the models of western tradition (and toward this end, we will study Lovecraft’s sonnet cycle, Fungi from Yuggoth).

ENG 450 B: The New Yorker Stories

J.D. Salinger’s stories featured characters who talked the way existentially-challenged East coast Americans actually talked; John Cheever and John Updike dramatized the pleasures and hypocrisies of suburban America in meditative story/essays; Ann Beattie employed literary minimalism to illuminate the oddly vexed lives of the northeast upper middle class, while Lorrie Moore crafted narratives rendering postmodern self-consciousness via stories tricked out as sets of instructions. The New Yorker published these writers’ stories nearly exclusively, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that the magazine, through writers like these, was more influential in defining the American short story of the second half of the twentieth century than any other medium. In addition to examining a number of stories by this august group of writers, we’ll seek to draw some conclusions about what the mainstream American short story looks like structurally and thematically when it is construed as The New Yorker

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

no
SPTP course descriptions this semester

ESTUDIOS HISPANICOS(Spanish Studies )SPAN448A /FILM448A/CLAS448A/: SPTP-Portrait of the Nation in Black & White: Latin America and Spain in Film
What is a nation? What is the relation between cinema and the nation? How does cinema contribute to create (and to contest) an image of the nation? In this coursewe examine the connection between cinema and the nation within the context of three historical events (and their aftermaths) that had a transformative effect in the Spanish‐speaking world: the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, and the Cuban Revolution. All films are in black & white. (Taught in Spanish)

FILM AND REPRESENTATION STUDIES

FILM248 B/REL 248 B/ ASIA248B: SPTP: Paths to the Buddha-Japanese Journeys to Sacred Centers
This course explores the experiences, rituals, stories, beliefs, temples/shrines, images and traveling in Japanese Buddhist pilgrimages. What kind of travel is pilgrimage? What kind of religious experiences does it evoke? How is it tied to the Buddhist quest for freedom from suffering? How does it develop historically? Why is Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage alive and well in contemporary Japan? We will study the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Basho's poetic journeys, Shugendo or Mountain Buddhist pilgrimages, Hijiri travels to Mount Koya, anime pilgrimages and pilgrimage in modern Buddhist religious movements. This course is one of a series of courses devoted to the interdisciplinary study of Buddhism, designated as Paths of the Buddha and supported by the Mellon Humanities Crossing Boundaries Project, that will be offered in the 2014/2015 academic year.

FILM 347A : SPTP-Quirky Cinema
Quirky is synonymous with the strange, unusual, playful, and eccentric. Quirky cinema refers to a film style in which characters have peculiar, exaggerated characteristics, landscapes are filled with inappropriate objects, and narratives contain ironic twists. These films often have a magic realist style. This course will focus on three directors who are associated with this style: the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson, and Jean Jeunet.

FILM448A/CLAS448A/SPAN448A: SPTP-Portrait of the Nation in Black & White: Latin America and Spain in Film
What is a nation? What is the relation between cinema and the nation? How does cinema contribute to create (and to contest) an image of the nation? In this course we examine the connection between cinema and the nation within the context of three historical events (and their aftermaths) that had a transformative effect in the Spanish‐speaking world: the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Civil War and the Cuban Revolution. All films are in black & white. (Taught in Spanish)

FINE ARTS see Art and Art History

FRANCOPHONE STUDIES

FR 248A/AFS248A SPTP: Congo: Representation
In this course, we will explore the different representations of Democratic Republic of Congo, through novels, historical accounts, ethnography, movies and graphic novels. This region has been subjected to various types of cruelty and oppression, since the Belgium colonization. Works studied include Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, excerpts from Hochchild's history King Leopold's Ghost; Raoul Peck's film Lumumba and Mweze Ngangura's film Identity Pieces; the novel Life and a Half by Sony Labou Tansi, etc. The goals of the course are not only to explore Congo's history and culture, but also to think critically about the way it has been imagined and represented from the 19th century to the present day.
Students wishing to count the course for the Francophone Studies major will read works in the original French where appropriate and write all papers in French.

FR 248 B : SPTP- A la recherche de la Créolité
In 1989, Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Confiant published Éloge de la Créolité, a literary manifesto that advocated a French West Indian-based politics of identity. In this course, the concept of Créolité (Creoleness) will provide the framework for our study of Martinican and Guadeloupean literature. Readings will include the manifesto, at least four novels, and historical and anthropological sources. Assessment will be based on quizzes, essays, a mid-term and a final exam, and one oral presentation.

GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES

no
SPTP course descriptions this semester

GEOLOGYno
SPTP course descriptions this semester

GERMAN STUDIES

GER 248A/LTRN248A Where does Europe Begin and End?
This course reexamines the imaginary, cultural, and political borders between (Central) Europe and the Balkans. We take a fictional journey in time and space, which brings us to the former border between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires and into the former Habsburg region of Central Europe, in order to investigate and reexamine essentialist definitions about a homogenous European identity. For this purpose we watch films and an opera and read novels, short stories, essays, and articles in history and cultural studies written or directed by Austrian, Bosnian, Hungarian, Czech, Bulgarian, Italian, and American authors.

GLOBAL STUDIES

GS 247 A/PEAC 247 A: SPTP: Intergroup Dialogue 8/28-10/16
This half unit course will run for the first half of the semester. Modeled on a highly successful program at the University of Michigan, it provides a space for students to delve deeply into their own and others’ identities, whether those are based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, social class or others. The first half of each three-hour seminar is spent going over readings but the second consists of workshops during which students sustain a dialogue on issues of difference and identity. Permission of the instructor required. Please contact Professor Eve Stoddard by email at estoddard@stlawu.edu.

GS 247 B/ PEAC 247 B SPTP: Intergroup Dialogue International Identities 10/21-12/12
This half unit course will run for the second half of the semester. Modeled on a highly successful program at the University of Michigan, it provides a space for students to delve deeply into their own and others’ identities, whether those are based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, social class, or in this case with a special focus on identities across national borders. The first half of each three-hour seminar is spent going over readings but the second consists of workshops during which students sustain a dialogue on issues of difference and identity. Permission of the instructor required. Please contact Professor Karl Schonberg, Associate Dean of CIIS at kschonberg@stlawu.edu.

GOVERNMENT

GOVT 290A: SEM – China’s Rise
This course evaluates the significance (and insignificance!) of China’s rise through an interdisciplinary approach borrowing from the fields of comparative politics, economics, global studies, and international relations. This course also provides the conceptual and organizational tools necessary for students to appreciate good research and to begin practicing the craft themselves.

GOVT 290B- SEM-Foreign Aid
Does foreign aid promote or hinder economic development and respect for human rights in the developing world? Are humanitarian, economic or political concerns more important in determining how donors allocate aid and why aid flows to certain countries and not others? In this course we will explore these questions by examining the determinants of development and humanitarian aid allocation by donors countries and assessing the impact of this aid on recipient states in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other developing regions. Along the way, we’ll also take an in-depth look at how research is conducted in political science, with students learning how to identify a research question, design a research plan, use various forms of data as evidence and assess research findings. Students will put their research skills to use by completing a semester-long research project on question related to foreign or humanitarian aid.

GOVT. 370A - Congress and the Presidency
As actors that share significant powers in the federal policymaking process, the institutions of Congress and the presidency are inextricably linked. This course will cover the powers and structure of Congress and the presidency, the processes by which the two branches make policymaking decisions, and the ways the two interact and conflict with each other and other political actors in an increasingly polarized political environment.

GOVT. 370B - Presidential Elections – Darby Morrisroe
This course aims to provide an understanding of the American system of presidential selection from a variety of perspectives. Students will first consider the historical development of presidential election process and the changing theories of presidential selection. We will then examine the contemporary process and politics involved in selecting party nominees and holding a general election for the presidency. Finally, we will explore multiple aspects of the presidential electoral landscape including campaign financing, media, voting and political parties.

GOVT 373A/AFS 348- Political Institutions in the Developing World
Can the choice of certain political institutions help address challenges in developing countries by promoting better representation, political stability, more government accountability, less corruption, or improved economic performance? What institutions are best able to deliver these outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Central and South Asia and others developing regions of the world? This course tackle these question through introducing students to the main concepts and approaches of comparative institutional analysis through an examination of democratic political institutions in countries across the developing world. In order to examine the possibilities and limits institutional design, each class juxtaposes contemporary research on institutions in developing countries with classic comparative and theoretical studies of political institutions from the developed world. Students will have the opportunity to explore the effects of political institutions in an area of the world of interest to them through a semester-long research project.

GOVT. 373B -Torture, Truth and Memory
Authoritarian regimes have often committed massive human rights abuses that included murder, torture, disappearances and forced adoptions. As a condition for transitioning to democratic governance the military insisted on amnesty for those crimes, but societies have sought to come to terms with their human rights history through other means: truth commissions, forensic anthropology, investigative journalism, international prosecution, collective memory projects and popular culture. Drawing on memoirs, torturers confessions, declassified documents, films, literature and analytical texts this course explores the ongoing struggle over who will interpret the political past, and what roles justice and forgiveness might play in securing democracy for the future. Course readings will center on Latin American cases, and students can apply those lessons in other world regions through their presentations and research papers.

GOVT376B: SPTP- Cyber Politics –Online/Hybrid
This course is an attempt to locate important themes of “international politics” and to explore the transformations of these themes both intellectually and practically when cyber space is used as a form of political space that links national and international political agendas. The course is looking at the workings of globalization of cyber ecosystems and their consequences. Thus the working of the Internet politics from ‘national perspectives’ such as electoral processes to the impact on transnational social movements to global security concerns of cyber security and cyber war, forms key foundations of the course.

GOVT 376C: SPTP- International Political Economy
This course provides an introduction to the field of International Political Economy. IPE focuses on important questions surrounding international relations and political economy such as how inter-state relations affect the economic relations between states and how domestic and international economic relations influence international relations and domestic politics. In this course, we will survey major approaches to the study of international economic relations. Next we will explore a number of sub-fields of IPE and learn contending approaches in the sub-fields. At the end of the course, students will have developed a firm grasp of the major issues, approaches, and debates in the field.

HISTORY

HIST 248A: Public History w/CBL ( 1.5 credits )
History is an active process and much of historians’ research takes place in archives and libraries. In this course we will explore the field of public history, which includes the collection, cataloguing and dissemination of histories that takes place through public sites such as libraries, historical societies and museums. We will also practice in the field through the area of local history with an examination of the histories of Canton, St. Lawrence County and the North Country. We will introduce and utilize the various tools of the discipline of history, such as document analysis, critical reviews, and particularly the understanding of historiography as we research and write local history. Part of the research into this second element of the course will take place through a placement at a local institution such as a historical society or museum in cooperation with the Community-Based Learning Program. The work for this part of the course makes up an additional .5 credit.

HIST 248B/CLAS28B: SPTP-Yankees in the Tropics: American Imperialism in the Caribbean
This course will provide a critical examination of the enduring and conflicting involvement that the United States has had in the Caribbean. We will look at American attitudes towards Caribbean peoples and the ways in which life in the region has been affected by United States influence. We will start our journey in the 19th century, talking about American responses to the Haitian Revolution as well as the increasing American presence in the region in the 1850s, which culminated in the Spanish American War. Once in the 20th century, we will look at topics such as the US invasion of Haiti, the Cuban Revolution, and the political and economic transformation of Puerto Rico under US tutelage.

HIST248 C/PHIL 248 C SPTP: Issues in American Democracy w/CBL
This course will ask students to consider the principles and sources of American democracy through reading some of our primary public documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and writings of notable American intellectuals, such as, as John Winthrop, Thomas Paine, Abigail Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Our aim is to attempt an articulation of the great promise of American democracy, while simultaneously unearthing and challenging tacit assumptions that may explain why our democracy has yet to fulfill its promise to all. PLEASE NOTE: This course will be taught at the St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility in Canton and some of your classmates will be under its custody. Registration in the course is by permission only.

HIST299 A SEM: American Slavery
This seminar offers students an opportunity to learn about and practice the tools of the historian’s craft. It is geared toward history majors and minors, for whom it is a requirement, though the subject matter may also interest non-historians. Through an in-depth investigation of historical scholarship, we will explore the history of slavery in America from the colonial era through the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. Most students are surprised to learn about the complexity and variety of American slavery across time and place. In learning about slavery, we will focus on several areas of scholarly debate, addressing such issues as work, family, culture, community, as well as broader questions about how slavery shaped various institutions and events in American history. Students’ work over the semester will culminate in a paper that engages with historians’ understandings of one specific aspect of slavery’s history.

HIST 299 B SEM: Understanding North Korea: an Historical Perspective
This seminar is designed for current and soon-to-be History majors and minors to study and practice the historian's craft, and to learn about "historiography"—that is, the history of historical interpretations, and what historians have written about particular subjects and how this has changed over time. In this course we will study the history of the Korean peninsula during the 20th century, from the end of the Choson Dynasty, through the era of Japanese colonialism, World War II, the Cold War that divided Korea into North and South. From 1950 to the end of the 20th century we will focus on developments in North Korea. As a history department sophomore seminar, the course includes practice in historical research methods and analysis of primary documents. The class is discussion based, and students will write a bibliographic essay on a biographical study of a Korean living in the 20th century.

HIST472A: SYE: Weimar & Nazi Germany
The two German political regimes of the era from 1918 to 1945—the Weimar Republic born out of the Great War and the Nazi dictatorship that destroyed it—exemplified and contributed directly to the reshaping of European (and non-European) life in the twentieth century. This research seminar for senior history majors and minors will examine some of the approaches scholars have taken to understanding social, intellectual, cultural, and political aspects of life under these two governments as well as their effects on our understanding and experience of the “modern” world. The bulk of the course will be devoted to students crafting high-quality research papers on individually chosen topics. These papers will be expected to demonstrate a comprehension of the historiography on the chosen topic while contributing original insights based on students’ primary and secondary source research.

HIST480A/AFS480A: SYE: Contemporary Africa
A snap shot of contemporary Africa reveals a variety of local and global issues affecting a diverse continent. This course will use an interdisciplinary approach to examine contemporary issues such as development, social issues or political unrest, while also paying close attention to the historic roots to understanding present situations. Students in this research seminar will begin with a broad introduction to African studies and African history and then narrow their focus on producing a significant independent research paper on a topic of their choosing.

LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION LTRN248A/GER248A Where does Europe Begin and End?
This course reexamines the imaginary, cultural, and political borders between (Central) Europe and the Balkans. We take a fictional journey in time and space, which brings us to the former border between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires and into the former Habsburg region of Central Europe, in order to investigate and reexamine essentialist definitions about a homogenous European identity. For this purpose we watch films and an opera and read novels, short stories, essays, and articles in history and cultural studies written or directed by Austrian, Bosnian, Hungarian, Czech, Bulgarian, Italian, and American authors.

Prepare to sing along or play along with any of the tunes above for auditions that take place during the first week of classes. Familiarity with traditional, country modes of expression—playing and singing—is expected. Further, you’ll note the importance of harmony singing in the cuts above. Singers are welcome to sing any of the parts, harmony or lead.

It’s likely we will perform in several venues but our on-campus performance takes place Thursday, April 24, at 8 pm. We’ll be joined in that performance by noted Nashville instrumentalist, Tony Shaffer.

Do you catch yourself drumming incessantly on table tops, singing along with the washing machine’s beat, or making saxophones out of pizza boxes and broken straws? Ever think, hey, I should get academic credit for this? You can.

The SoundSandBox is a place to explore ways of making sound together. While skilled musicians are welcome, all students may enroll in this ensemble with the permission of the instructor. No prior experience with musical performance is required.

Performance projects will evolve around the group’s abilities and interests. Rehearsals are Fridays 1-4pm, and a concert is planned for 8pm on Friday, April 18th. Attendance at rehearsals and participation in the concert is mandatory to receive credit.

For more information, contact David Henderson, director (dhenderson@stlawu.edu).

MUS 247A, SPTP: Popular Music in the US

We consider the phenomenon of popular music in terms of sound, cultural practice and the influence of technology and marketing. We begin by trying to determine the meaning of the usage, “popular music.” Next we examine the aesthetics of popular music and the ways in which it is used, personally and politically. Much of the public presentation of popular music is in the form of the “spectacle.” We examine that phenomenon firsthand, attending a performance of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in Ottawa, March 21, 2014.

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIESno
SPTP course descriptions this semester

NEUROSCIENCE

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SPTP course descriptions this semester

NON DEPARTMENTAL

ND 347 A :SPTP- Business Case Study ( for BUSLA major )
Business Case Study is an upper level undergraduate course that is designed to provide students with the necessary tools to effectively analyze and interpret real world business problems and to develop thoughtful and intelligent solutions to these challenges. Through a series of speakers across multiple disciplines, students will explore concepts, such as: business vision/mission, external forces, internal forces, innovation/creativity, leadership/recommendations/implementation, constructing an argument, and communication/presentation. This will be a highly interactive course with an emphasis on class participation, team work, and experiential learning. Students will demonstrate understanding of key concepts through a series of weekly papers. The course will conclude with a culminating experience of a Case Study Competition judged by alumni and local experts in the field.

Permission of the instructor to enroll required.
Course will run from Tuesday, February 4-Tuesday, April 8.

This course will satisfy the experiential learning component of the Business in Liberal Arts Major.
Mandatory P/F will not impact Dean’s List eligibility.

OUTDOOR STUDIES no
SPTP course descriptions this semester

PEACE STUDIES

PEAC 348A/PHIL348A: SPTP: Philosophy of Peace
In this course we explore the meanings of terms such as peace, justice, conflict, violence, pacifism, conscientious objection, and civil disobedience, and we will consider the relationships among these terms. We will also consider questions such as: Is it possible to create a truly just world? Is it possible to respond to serious conflict or oppression nonviolently? Is the use of violent force ever justified? Is a "just war" possible? We will read classic works by philosophers and others on these topics. For students who have taken Introduction to Peace Studies, declared the Peace Studies minor, and taken cross-listed courses for the minor, this course will serve as the Peace Studies Capstone course.

PERFORMANCE AND COMMUNCATION ARTS

PCA 312A/313A SPTP: The Public Sphere of Renaissance Venice
At the peak of its Renaissance period, the Republic of Venice presented itself as a perfect embodiment of Plato’s and Aristotle’s classical republican model. At the same time, it reached a significant hegemonic position in the Western world measured both by hard (military power and economy) as well as soft (political philosophy and culture) standards of power. This course is conceived as a multidisciplinary reading and research seminar examining the complexity of the public sphere in the famous Italian city-state. In the opening part of the semester, students will become familiar with basic historical facts and geographic features of Venice. Subsequently, each student will produce a series of short papers and will present them at various points in class, putting emphasis on peer-to-peer learning. Finally, each student will write an individual research paper that will explore in depth a particular issue/topic/historical persona that s/he ‘discovered’ in the course of semester. Such projects will be presented to class during finals week.

PCA 312B:SPTP- Environmental Communication
In an essay titled “Commencement” Terry Tempest Williams writes, “I realized that in American Letters we celebrate both language and landscape, that these words, stories, and poems can create an ethical stance toward life.” Environmental Communication (EC) is a course that begins with the premise identified here—language shapes how humans live with the natural environment. As a discipline EC recognizes that how we speak about the environment and who is allowed to speak about the environment affect how humans view, interact with, and make policy about their surroundings. This course will use food as an entrance into the discipline and a lens through which to look at how communication creates relationships between humans and humans and the environment. Throughout the course students will examine how food discourse (particularly that which advocates local food) connects issues of citizenship, community building, and environmentalism. Students will encounter theoretical concerns of EC scholars (such as corporate marketing and green washing, the nature/culture divide, and questions of race, class, gender, and world position raised by those in environmental justice and food justice movements). Most importantly, students will have the opportunities to engage in their own critiques of food discourse and produce their own public pieces of environmental communication.

PCA313 E:SPTP- Voice & Movement"An exploration of the body and the voice as primary tools for performance and communication. Coursework focuses on a variety of techniques designed to develop an increased range of physical and vocal expression. The course features experimentation in a studio setting and practical application through rehearsal and performance."

PCA313H: Production Workshop-Romeo and Juliet
"The Spring 2014 production of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet directed by Prof. Charlie Pepiton will be rehearsed as a full credit, special topics performance course. The production course is a practical exploration of Shakepeare's original text using textual criticism, modern acting techniques, methods to unlock and activate the Elizabethan language, and physical theatre methods of composition. The production course will culminate in a public performance run in the Gulick Theatre. Auditions are required and will take place on November 12-13, 2013, at 7:00pm in NC109. Rehearsals will run during daytime class hours and some evenings from late January to early April. 15 hours per week. Final rehearsal schedule to be determined with the cast. Pass/Fail."

PHILOSOPHY

PHIL 248 C/HIST248 C/ SPTP: Issues in American Democracy w/CBL
This course will ask students to consider the principles and sources of American democracy through reading some of our primary public documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and writings of notable American intellectuals, such as, as John Winthrop, Thomas Paine, Abigail Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Our aim is to attempt an articulation of the great promise of American democracy, while simultaneously unearthing and challenging tacit assumptions that may explain why our democracy has yet to fulfill its promise to all. PLEASE NOTE: This course will be taught at the St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility in Canton and some of your classmates will be under its custody. Registration in the course is by permission only.

PHIL348/PEAC 348A: SPTP-Philosophy of Peace
In this course we explore the meanings of terms such as peace, justice, conflict, violence, pacifism, conscientious objection, and civil disobedience, and we will consider the relationships among these terms. We will also consider questions such as: Is it possible to create a truly just world? Is it possible to respond to serious conflict or oppression nonviolently? Is the use of violent force ever justified? Is a "just war" possible? We will read classic works by philosophers and others on these topics. For students who have taken Introduction to Peace Studies, declared the Peace Studies minor, and taken cross-listed courses for the minor, this course will serve as the Peace Studies Capstone course.

PHYSICS

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SPTP course descriptions this semester

PSYCHOLOGY

PSYC 348A SPTP-Positive Psychology with lab
While there is no shortage of lay theories and self-help literature that offer advice on how to achieve “the good life,” this lecture-laboratory course will examine the nature of positive emotions and well-being from the viewpoint of empirical psychology research. Recent empirical research will be reviewed, and students will apply the information in class discussion, written assignments, and hands-on experiences. By examining the relationship between happiness and such topics as life circumstances, character strengths, the conflicted mind, reciprocity, social relationships, trauma, and spirituality, we will understand and apply empirically-supported ideas for enhancing well-being.

PSYC448 A ECON 450 A/ First Comes Love…: Economics, Psychology, and the Family (Horwitz and Crosby-Currie)
Bringing together economics and psychology majors, this interdisciplinary senior seminar will explore the social institution of the family by considering the evolving processes of courtship, marriage and parenting. Families perform a variety of functions, many of them to secure the psychological and economic well-being of their members. However, those functions have evolved over time, requiring that the forms of families evolve as well. In particular, we will consider ways in which economic changes have required families to adapt new structures to fulfill their functions. For example, consider the challenges of child care for families with two working parents or the ways that economic prosperity—or lack thereof—affects the role of love in the decision to marry. In this seminar, we will compare and contrast the methodologies and theories the two fields use to explore how and to what extent families fulfill their functions and how the family has changed. Our hope is that an exploration of the scholarly literature on the family from both disciplines will provide you with fascinating research questions and shed some new light on the nature of the modern family.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

REL148A: SPTP-World Religions
Being a citizen in the 21st century requires that we understand the beliefs and practices of those religious traditions that have passed the test of time and continue to influence the world in which we live. The course will begin with an inquiry into the nature of religion and religious belief, and then survey origins, teachings, practices, and present-day situations of Indigenous Religions, the major Eastern (Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism) and Western religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Attention will also be given to how these varied traditions influence contemporary issues such as gender, sexuality, ethics, science and ecology. Several field trips will be required.

REL 248 A: SPTP- Violence and Dialogue
The potential role of religion in violence and conflict, great awareness of religious pluralism, and the rising place of religion in society indicate that understanding and cooperation among people of different traditions is absolutely necessary in today's world. This course considers that Christians and Muslims have been living together for over 1400 years and have always engaged actively with each other. Christianity and Islam have common beliefs in one Creator, Jesus as the Messiah, the Day of Judgment, and so on. They also share a history of violence and war against each other. The course examines Christian-Muslim interfaith dialogue in the midst of the anxiety, rage, and violence that wounds everyone. Though a few other religions will be touched on in some of the class readings, the course will especially explore history, basic beliefs, rituals, scriptures and political/social issues of Christianity and Islam.

REL 248 B/FILM 248 B/ASIA248B: SPTP: Paths to the Buddha-Japanese Journeys to Sacred Centers
This course explores the experiences, rituals, stories, beliefs, temples/shrines, images and traveling in Japanese Buddhist pilgrimages. What kind of travel is pilgrimage? What kind of religious experiences does it evoke? How is it tied to the Buddhist quest for freedom from suffering? How does it develop historically? Why is Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage alive and well in contemporary Japan? We will study the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Basho's poetic journeys, Shugendo or Mountain Buddhist pilgrimages, Hijiri travels to Mount Koya, anime pilgrimages and pilgrimage in modern Buddhist religious movements. This course is one of a series of courses devoted to the interdisciplinary study of Buddhism, designated as Paths of the Buddha and supported by the Mellon Humanities Crossing Boundaries Project, that will be offered in the 2014/2015 academic year.

REL 348 A: SPTP- Is It the End?: Apocalyptic Thinking in Religions
Some religions envision an end to the world as we know it. This course introduces what traditional Judaism, Christianity, and Islam teach about the end of the world, the Messiah, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and related matters. There are those who interpret the descriptions of the End Time scenario literally. There are those, on the other hand, who say that we have to consider the texts and contexts and interpret passages in a figurative and spiritual manner. The course examines various approaches in each Abrahamic tradition using readings from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Qur'an and as well as the Hadith Tradition.

RUSSIAN

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SPTP course descriptions this semester

SOCIOLOGY

SOC 247 C: SPTP- Rural Sociology
In this course we will look at a variety of issues that concern rural life and livelihood within the United States, between rural and urban people in the US, and between rural USA and those in other nations as a result of interactions with the United States, for example: through trade policies by such organizations as the IMF and WTO. Topics include the use of land, water, and resources; issues pertaining to rural populations including gender, racial and ethnic discrimination; employment opportunities and barriers; movement between the country and the city within families; and food production. We will gain a better understanding of rural areas/populations/issues from a sociological perspective. Rural sociology is an important subfield of the general discipline of sociology. We will pay particular attention to economic conditions, political party “wars” over rural life; media; race, gender and class issues; and the environment and sustainable development. We will engage the course material through readings, films, class discussions, and practical hands-on projects.

SOC 247A: SPTP-Population and Natural Resources
In order to better understand the interplay of human population and natural resource use, this course introduces the tools and insights of demographic science and then places those insights in the historical context of world population change. Following this introduction the course explores the implications of the population growth on various natural resources and closes with a case study of an attempt to curb population growth in the developing world - in order to better understand the complexities of developing policy initiatives that address human population growth.

SOC 247 B: SPTP- Contemporary Environmental Issues
This course will employ insights from sociology to explore how contemporary environmental issues like fracking and climate change are understood, debated and either acted upon or not. Through case studies of ongoing challenges we will explore how societies understand risk, how social stratification affects action on environmental issues and how attitudes can change about those issues.

SOC 290A: Travel Component for SOC 246 A
This course accompanies SOC246: What’s so Bad about Aging w/ CBL, which focuses on aging in the United States. This .5 credit travel component focuses on population aging, the aging experience, and the interplay with economic policies and the transition to a market economy in China. Students will have the chance to gain first-hand experience of China’s changing demographic structure, social stratification, social institutions, and culture in this 11-day trip to China. Specifically, we will examine the interplay between social institutions and policies specific to China, such as the one-child policy and household registration system, the transition to a market economy, and population aging. The swelling proportion of elderly and a shrinking proportion of working age adults and children now threatens to undermine China’s economic growth. Moreover, unprecedented demands for health care and support of the elderly is quickly changing a society where families have been the primary source of support. Students are expected to do extra reading, write journals, and participate in discussions while in China, and turn in a final paper after they are back from the travel.

SOC 290 C: Travel Component for SOC/ASIA 278 A
This course accompanies SOC/ASIA 278A China’s Market Transition. This .5 credit travel component focuses on how China’s socioeconomic transformation has affected different segments of the population including the elders, migrant workers and their children, artists, career women, private entrepreneurs, etc. Students will have the chance to gain first-hand experience of China’s changing social stratification, demographic structure, social institutions, and culture in this 11-day trip to China. Specifically, we will examine how social institutions and policies specific to China, such as the one-child policy, hukou or household registration system, and the transition to a market economy, influence people’s lives. Students are expected to do extra reading, write journals, and participate in discussions while in China, and turn in a final paper after they are back from the travel.

SPORT STUDIES AND EXERCISE SCIENCESSSES 247A: SPTP-Leadership in Sport
This course provides a foundation of the theories, styles and techniques of leadership as they pertain to coaches and players in sport. The role of preparation, communication, group cohesion, and mental toughness and how they relate to success in sport is explored. The course is meant to help current and aspiring sport leaders gain a better understanding of effective leadership.